1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to image processing technology and, more specifically, relate to a method and an apparatus for increasing brightness of an image captured in low light.
2. Description of Related Art
An imaging system such as a digital camera, an optical scanner or a video camera uses an image sensor. The image sensor is typically a coupled charge device (CCD) image sensor or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. One of the challenges of utilizing the image sensor is to capture an image with enough brightness when the object is in a low light environment. Conventionally, this is achieved by turning up the power of gain amplifiers of the image sensor—also known as ISO equivalence of the image system. Thereby, the brightness of the captured image is increased. However, doing so also amplifies any noise in the electrical signals that correspond to the image. This may deteriorate the quality of the captured image. In particular, portions of the unadjusted image that are relatively bright may become too bright after the image signals are amplified.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method and an apparatus for increasing brightness of an image captured in low light, which method and apparatus can overcome the abovementioned problems.